A conventional commercial aircraft generally includes a fuselage, a pair of wings, and a propulsion system that provides thrust. The propulsion system typically includes at least two aircraft engines, such as turbofan jet engines. Each turbofan jet engine is typically mounted to a respective one of the wings of the aircraft, such as in a suspended position beneath the wing, separated from the wing and fuselage.
When operating in a steady state operating condition during flight, active clearance control systems of the turbofan jet engines may close down, or tighten up, clearances within, e.g., respective turbine sections of the turbofan jet engines. As will be appreciate, tightening up the clearances may increase an efficiency of the turbofan jet engines. However, these clearances are not kept as close as would otherwise be desired in order to enable the turbofan jet engines to relatively quickly increase an effective power output if desired. More specifically, these clearances are not kept as close as would otherwise be desired in order to allow the components within the turbofan jet engines to expand radially outwardly if need in response to a command to accelerate the turbofan jet engines (the expansion resulting from, e.g., an increased rotational speed, and/or an increased temperature to which the components are exposed).
Accordingly, a propulsion system for an aircraft capable of operating turbomachines in an efficient manner with relatively low clearances during steady state flight operations, without sacrificing an acceleration response, would be useful.